Hacker Prompts Idaho Fish And Game To Stop Selling Licenses Online

Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game says people can still buy hunting tags and fishing licenses at participating stores and Fish and Game offices, but not online. That’s after the software company that manages online and in-person sales told Fish and Game it had been hacked.

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If you’ve ever been in a sports league, or signed up for a camp or registered for a race from a 10-K to a triathlon, you might have done it through Active Network. The Texas-based company sells services for a huge variety of outdoor activities, including hunting and fishing. The company boasts on its website that it processes half of all recreational licenses in the U.S., including the state of Idaho’s and several other state Fish and Game agencies. It also claims that it manages more than $3 billion in payments a year to more the 42,000 organizations.

Active Network did not return calls or e-mails from KBSX to discuss the breach, but Mike Keckler with Idaho Fish and Game says his department has been in contact with the company since Tuesday, when Active Network first called.

“They did tell us their system was hacked,” Keckler says. “Now the question is: In conducting this hack, did this individual or organization also gain access to customer data from Idaho? And that’s what we’re waiting to find out.”

Keckler says if the hacker did get customer data it would be of anyone who has bought a hunting tag or a fishing license in Idaho online or in person. But Fish and Game has only suspended online sales.

“They assured us that because the systems are separate, we can safely sell licenses and tags from the terminals at the various businesses and at Fish and Game Offices,” Keckler says.

Active Network has not released any information about how extensive its data breach might be, but Keckler says Fish and Game agencies in Oregon, Washington and possibly other states have gotten similar calls from the company.